LIHUE — The 32nd Matsuri Kauai Festival will be held Saturday at the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. All are encouraged to attend the free event and fold paper cranes (orizuru). The festival commemorates
LIHUE — The 32nd Matsuri Kauai Festival will be held Saturday at the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. All are encouraged to attend the free event and fold paper cranes (orizuru).
The festival commemorates the 20th anniversary of Hiroshima and Hawaii being sister states, and features the Orizuru Tree of Peace and Aloha. The Orizuru Tree is dedicated to Sadako Sasaki, a young girl from Hiroshima who survived the bombing on Aug. 6, 1945, only to die on Oct. 12, 1955, at the age of 12 from leukemia caused by the fallout.
Sadako’s mission to fold 1,000 cranes (senbazuru) to get well while in the hospital became a symbol of peace and hope throughout the world.
People can fold orizuru at the festival and place them at a designated Orizuru Tree area. Japanese origami papers for folding will be provided by Kauai’s four sister cities in Japan.
The tree is also dedicated to the late Mrs. Aiko Nakaya from Waimea, who taught origami art for many years on Kauai. She passed away in June.
In July, Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. escorted the Kauai Yankees Little League baseball team to Hiroshima, where the team played against three Hiroshima teams. They also visited Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki.
The festival will feature special guests Torao Hikariyama, aka Tevita Apina, an enka singer from Oahu who was the youngest boy to win grand champion at KZOO radio’s karaoke competition and competed in Japan. Hikariyama has been on several TV shows in Japan and has three CD releases.
There will also be a magic show by Shu “Mister Magic” Igari from Iwaki city as well as dances, songs and taiko performances, an omotesenke tea ceremony, shigin (poetic singing) and soba-making and tasting from Iwaki city.
Thirty-seven officials and guests from Japan will attend the festival, including Suo Oshima Mayor Takumi Shiiki and Katsukuni Tanaka, a Hiroshima bomb survivor and member of the U.S. Japan Society of Hiroshima, who arranged the Kauai Yankees baseball exchange with the Hiroshima Little League.
Pearl Shimizu, president of Kauai Japanese Cultural Society, invites everyone to come to this once-a-year festival which celebrates Japan’s traditional and contemporary culture and arts. She also encourages people with ancestral roots in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be part of the Orizuru Tree of Peace and Aloha.
Info: Pearl Shimizu, 822-5353 or pkgshim3@hawaiiantel.net.
